Dota 2
Dota 2
Could the Dota 2 Lima Major be canceled due to unrest?
William Davis
Some Dota 2 pros are theorizing that the Lima Major may get canceled, putting a big damper on the 2023 DPC. For now, Valve is set on hosting the first major of the 2023 DPC in the Peruvian capital city of Lima. However, political unrest in the city could result in changes to the $500,000 event. Pro players and journalists have proposed that the event could get canceled, which would …
Dota 2
The easiest way to take Rosh solo as OD in Dota 2
William Davis
Outworld Destroyer isn’t the first hero most Dota 2 players think of when it comes to taking Rosh solo, but OD is now a member of the exclusive club. Whether you plan to go Meteor Hammer or Moon Shard, OD is one of the best mid lane heroes to play in solo ranked. He has a great matchup spread and can quickly snowball to a victory against feeble-minded opponents. His …
Dota 2
Learn how to prep crit and bash in Dota 2 with PRNG
William Davis
Learning how to prep crit and bash is a core skill in Dota 2, so it’s a surprise how few players actually do it. Random number generation is generally considered uncompetitive at best and game-ruining at worst. However, the concept is also baked into the core of Dota 2. Many abilities and spells use RNG to determine their effects, with some heroes practically built around luck, such as Chaos Knight, …
Dota 2
TI11 prize pool was just 6.45% of total battle pass money
William Davis
If Valve used the original percentage for The International 2022, the TI11 prize pool would have been more than $73 million. Now that The International 2022 and Diretide combo battle pass is over, Dota 2 fans can now roughly calculate how much money Valve earned from the release. According to Team Secret’s calculations, Valve pulled in an insane amount of money. But because of the new distribution, the prize pool …
Dota 2
When is the next post-TI patch coming to Dota 2?
William Davis
Dota 2 7.32d is starting to get a little stale, so when can fans expect the next big patch? Dota 2 is an evolving game like no other. The esports’ famously complex systems only get more and more complicated with every patch, but it’s hard to find players who dislike the system. The biggest switch-ups are usually reserved for after The International, but Valve has been radio silent since the …
Dota 2
Week 19 mission guide for the Diretide battle pass
William Davis
Week 19 of Diretide is a bittersweet end to one of the longest battle passes in Dota 2 history, When Diretide first launched, 19 weeks seemed like an eternity. But now that the final batch of weekly quests is here, it all seems so short in retrospect. A new Dota Pro Circuit season will mean more battle pass content throughout the year, but this Diretide will be remembered for its …
Dota 2
Dota 2 dev IceFrog returning for next patch, Skiter claims
William Davis
IceFrog will return to Dota 2 development in 2023, but many fans may not realize that he was ever gone in the first place. In a recent interview, Tundra Esports carry Oliver “skiter” Lepko opened up on rumors that IceFrog temporarily left Dota 2 development in either late 2020 or early 2021. The reveal comes during an interview after The International 2022, where Tundra earned over $8.5 million and a …
Dota 2
Week 18 mission guide for the Diretide battle pass
William Davis
Diretide week 18 will be easy as pie for Shadow Fiend players who love building Heaven’s Halberd. We’re nearing the end of Diretide, and if Valve was having trouble coming up with missions before, it is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel now. This week’s tasks involve several basic missions, including healing from lifesteal, winning as a ranged hero, and accumulating kills and assists. It’s an easy week, but …
Burmese Dota 2 team caught scripting, banned from DPC
William Davis
Dota 2
Scripting is a serious offense in the Dota 2 DPC, with guilty gamers receiving being a ban as punishment. And now one player found that out the hard way. Valve and tournament host EPULZE has officially banned Yangon Galacticos from the Southeast Asian Dota Pro Circuit for scripting. The announcement comes after the team’s carry Kaung “KSH” Sett Hein was found guilty of using digital inputs in competitive matches. Scripting …
Week 17 mission guide for the Diretide battle pass
William Davis
Dota 2
Diretide week 17 will be full of tower hitters, sentry wards, and legs. Diretide is now in its final three weeks, which means that every remaining level is even more precious. There are only nine left to earn from the weekly missions, so it may even be worth activating old bonus weeks to squeeze everything you can out of them. However, for those already caught up, here’s out mission guide …
Dota 2 pro asks Valve to take back permanent ban after account sharing
Olivia Richman
Dota 2
Earlier this week, Valve banned pro Dota 2 players for account sharing. Now, some of the pros are asking Valve to loosen up. Developers gave out 10 lifetime bans on December 18 after a thorough investigation found the players guilty of account sharing in official matches. This included top players like Kamil “Koma” Biktimirov and Yaroslav “Limitless” Parshin. The pros are now asking Valve to reduce the sentence. A day …
Dates for 2023 DPC revealed, where will the majors be?
William Davis
Dota 2
The 2023 DPC season is right around the corner, and Valve has finally revealed the dates for the three regular seasons. After months of anticipation following The International 2022, the dates for the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit have been finalized. The tours, which are half as long as previous years’, will take place over three weeks starting in January, April, and June. In addition, this year will finally feature three …
Bloodstone Razor is busted, here’s how to build it
William Davis
Dota 2
Looking for a new build to grind out the upgraded Razor arcana? Vanguard, Eternal Shroud and Bloodstone are what you need. Razor’s upgraded arcana style is one of the coolest skins in Dota 2, but getting 500 kills with more than 100 Static Link damage is a tall order. Luckily for cosmetic-inclined players, Razor is taking matchmaking by storm with a 56.12% win rate over the last few weeks. This …
10 pro Dota 2 players banned by Valve for account sharing
William Davis
Dota 2
Many Dota 2 players may view account sharing as a bit of harmless fun, but Valve strongly disagrees. Valve has announced the banning of 10 competitive Dota 2 players on the grounds of illegally playing on other players’ accounts during tournaments. The list primarily consists of tier-two players, but also includes the safe lane carry of Virtus.pro and the bulk of Luna Gaming’s roster. These players will no longer be …
When is the Diretide battle pass end date in Dota 2?
William Davis
Dota 2
The Diretide battle pass is nearing its end and all those fancy new arcanas and persona will be going away with it. The International 2022 and Diretide battle pass is one of the longest battle passes ever put into Dota 2 with a total length of over four months. It added four new top-tier cosmetics and dozens of new immortals and sets. However, time is running out to claim your …
Week 16 mission guide for the Diretide battle pass
William Davis
Dota 2
The weekly quests for week 16 finally include a Diretide mission that doesn’t require selling your soul. Valve is taking it easy on Dota 2 players for the last leg of the battle pass. Several missions take just one strategic game to complete, and the five-star Diretide mission is the easiest one so far. Here are the best hero and strategies to ace this week and claim your three free …
Dendi launches new team to compete in NA Dota Pro Circuit
William Davis
Dota 2
Dota 2 icon Danil “Dendi” Ishutin is back in the lanes with a new team, but they will be competing a long way from home in 2023. Dendi has announced a new B8 Dota 2 roster to compete in the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit season. The lineup is a mix of up-and-coming players and experienced veterans such as Dendi himself. The team will be competing in North America, which is …
Week 15 mission guide for the Diretide battle pass
William Davis
Dota 2
Week 15 of the Diretide battle pass is the beginning of the end, but our mission guide will get it over with quickly. Week 15 of Diretide is mostly taking it easy, but players who spam Oracle and Nature’s Prophet will have an even easier time than most. These quests vary from fairly generic to highly specific, so it may be worth cracking open some Diretide games to get this …
Week 14 mission guide for the Diretide battle pass
William Davis
Dota 2
Diretide week 14 is really just more of the same, but what else can you expect from Valve at this point? Carry players who love rushing neutral items and buying Blink Daggers will have a ball this week, as many of the missions are particularly suited to their playstyle. As for the rest of the Dota 2 community, it’s easy to make piecemeal progress on each mission regardless of your …
Week 13 mission guide for the Diretide battle pass
William Davis
Dota 2
Our Diretide week 13 mission guide recommends slapping your teammates and committing vehicular assault in the name of free levels. While Diretide week 12 had an air of tiredness to it, it seems that Valve is doing a “greatest hits” method for the last week of the battle pass. Some of the more straightforward and easy quests are back, and the Diretide-exclusive mission is much easier to pull off. Expect …
Few games have proven to have the resilient popularity enjoyed by Dota 2. The multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA for short, has been among the biggest and most successful projects released by gaming giant Valve, and it continues to enjoy great popularity to this day.
That popularity has endured despite a great number of changes that have been made to both the game itself and to the communities surrounding it. The competitive title’s history reaches all the way back to another game created and published by another developer, but with Valve now leading the way, Dota 2 seems primed to last well into the future.
From Blizzard to Valve, Dota 2 continues to evolve
While know today as one of Valve’s key game properties, Dota 2 has its origins in a real-time strategy game developed and published by famed video game company Blizzard. One of the franchises that keyed Blizzard’s success and reputational growth in the games industry is WarCraft, which today is best-known for the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft.
But prior to the success of World of Warcraft, the high-fantasy franchise was experienced through a series of RTS games. The third main title in that series, WarCraft 3, provided players not only with a great experience right out of the box, but also with the opportunity to heavily modify the game and its functions, and to play modified versions of the experience as custom games online with other players.
The most popular of these custom game modes was arguably Defense of the Ancients, or DotA for short. This custom game mode saw two teams of players face off against each other with strong individual champion characters, as opposed to building out complex home bases and developing broad armies of diverse units.
It was an entirely different way to play the game, and it proved so popular that would eventually give birth to an entirely new genre of video games: the MOBA genre.
The continuation of the original DotA became Dota 2, a project developed under the guidance of famed developer and publisher Valve. Flush with success from online marketplace Steam and its own franchises including Half-Life and Portal, Valve was more than willing to invest in this new and innovative game type.
The International sets Dota 2 apart
While there have been many other competitive games created and released since, including other popular MOBAs such as Riot Games’ League of Legends, Dota 2 has stood apart for remaining true to its roots and for massive competitive events like The International. First held in 2011 for the purpose of bringing together disparate competitive teams from all around the world with more than $1 million on the line, the esports tournament quickly grew into the biggest such event of each calendar year.
One of the main drivers behind that immense growth was the upwards trajectory of the tournament’s prize pool. Partially funded by Dota 2 players and esports fans, the prize pool for The International began increasing in 2013 and eventually ballooned to a massive total of over $40 million by the time 2021 rolled around. For the groups of players and coaches who climbed this mountain and won its top prize, it was a truly life-changing event.
For varied reasons, Valve eventually soured on running the event itself and on the idea of having so much money filtered into one specific event. Prize winnings were dropped significantly in 2022, and even further for the 2023 and 2024 events. But despite the prizes on hand no longer being quite so astronomical, The International still boasts a prize in the low millions, and it remains the biggest event on the Dota 2 competitive calendar and arguably on the greater esports calendar across all games.
